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| Missing Children [SC0206] |
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- Sponsor: Adventurer's Guild
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| Objectives: |
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- Check the "Missing Persons" list at the guild.
- Search for and locate a missing child.
- If alive, rescue and reunite them with their family.
| The streets of Scribel aren't always the safest place.
Children are known to go missing without notice.
What happened to them? Did they get lost? Abducted? Attacked by a monster?
The parents demand that a search party be formed. |
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It was during her observation on the people on the market, that she saw a girl being taken while her mother haggled with the merchant. The girl immediately went limp as the man put something to cover her mouth. as the girl fell, the man caught her, and carry her away. As for the mother, she saw that the mother panicked after realizing that her child was missing. At that moment, the man had gone from the area. As for her, she continue to observe them all, not fazed at this event.
The next day, when she looked at the missing person list, she saw the request from the mother of that child. The sketch of the child written on the missing person list matched the girl who was taken. She hesitated to do it, a missing child quest, as tracking was not really her forte. Yet, she was reminded of the woman's panicked face when the woman realized that her child was missing.
She took the quest.
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Once again, she hovered on the top of the building surrounding the market stalls. She waited for the man to do it once again, or, at least spot the man who did it. Though, if she thought about it, the people on the market should be on alert at the attempted kidnapping as it occurred yesterday. thinking about this, a doubt rose inside her. The only thing she remembered was the man's face. Other than that, she had nothing on the man. She didn't know where he had gone yesterday, past the market entrance.
She waited. She observed the market once again. This time she looked for the hint of yesterday's face. At first, she got the idea of masquerading as a child. Yet, her coloration would give her away, as she could only possess the color of blue to white were she to transform to ice. Also, it would be simply impossible to move, were she made herself into one. The solution for this was, of course, to make joints, not unlike the dolls. When she did so in the past, her contractor commented that it was uncanny, to see something like a doll moving like a human. Also, since her face would be rigidly made, she had no way to articulate it except of her eyeballs.
The idea of masquerading as one tempt her more and more, since she had no clue at all at that moment. The man didn't seem visible from her vantage point. As time passed, she thought to herself that she needed a better idea. Skin, white as snow she already had. The next thing she needed to do was to get the color of the blood for her lips and color of ebony for her hair if she wanted to make her appearance the fairest of them all. She shook her head. That way lied nothing but suffering.
Finding herself without a lead, she moved down to the ground to mingle with the people. She began to ask if they had seen someone with the face like her. She mimicked the man's yesterday body shape as best as she could, and turned her face to that of that man. As for her translucency, she described the man's skin and hair color to help with their imagery.
Asking the people seemed to be the right move, as she found someone who knew the man and willing to lead her to him. With that, she followed the guy's lead.
She was led to an alley. The sound of footsteps of the market dampened as she entered the alley. Following the guy's lead, she walked deeper and deeper, until the guy stopped in front of a door. The guy then pushed the door inward and stepped inside. He entered, motioning with his hand to follow him as his body was almost entirely covered by the wall.
Following the guy, she saw and heard some people of various ages inside, chatting and drinking.Those people were drinking alcoholic beverages in the middle of day. As of that moment, the guy led her toward some kind of small stage in the middle of the establishment.
As the guy stood there, the man clapped with his hand once. At that moment, she saw that most of them stopped talking. The few that were talking at that moment noticed the sudden lowering of the intensity and stopped talking themselves. That moment, the guy cleared his throat twice, and then said, "Guys. It seem that our operation has been noticed by this adventurer. Keith, you were careless yesterday."
The guy calmly said that, that she realized she was in a bad position. She then heard the guy said, "Kill it."
Immediately, the people on the front started to move. Brandishing their weapon, they charged at her. It was bad for her. Even if her body was made of water, she couldn't just let herself be cut. She couldn't control any water that was not touching her body, and at high enough speed, they could sever her limb and let the water fall.
The guy who brought her here had already gone, missing from her senses. She could only focus on blocking and parrying their attack. First, she shifted her mass, making a muzzle made of ice, and made a bullet inside. She transferred the energy released from the solidification of her body into steam. As it was, the pressure from the steam propelled the ice bullet onward. The bullet struck true, and hit one of them.
It was a momentary distraction, yet the people in the front kept charging, not seeing that she struck their comrade. She prepared her second bullet. This time, she used her free hand to create a long sword. Again, she transferred the energy used to froze them to create another steam propellant, and shot it. One more fell, and she brandished her long sword, taking a stance to thrust it.
As it was, the difference of the temperature between her sword and cannon, and her surrounding made those to be a receptor for heat. Yet, the rate of heat flowed into her was not sufficient for her third shot. Meanwhile, she could feel her sword cracked from parrying the one closest to her. One man stabbed her body using his sword, coming through her back. She let it be as it would not have a sufficient speed to sever her. Meanwhile, the other man went into an overhead swing using his axe.
She tried to parry the man with her arm-cannon. Yet, it was severed, as she no longer felt the connection with it. She had to make a tendril to reconnect with the ice and puddle around it, salvaging her body as much as possible before it evaporated. Yet, the success of the man had emboldened him to take another overhead swing.
She had to back down here. Fighting against this many people were tricky affair. She was lucky that there was no fire mage among them, as it could spell her doom. Reforming her cannon, she released a piece of her body once again. This way was too unsustainable. Especially when she had no way to prevent them approaching her. Yet, with her back against the wall, she could only made a stand here.
"Gyahahaha! This thing was nothing! Just continue to hack it guys, it cannot use the hacked part!" She had the axe wielder boast. But, it was true. The further this continue, the less material she could use to reform her body. The other two in front of her wizened and no longer trying to stab her.
She had to take her chance. She let her main body be cut. She melted into a puddle, shunting some of her mass.
"Is it dead?" One of the men said.
Right then, it was her choice, she could continue fighting or she could retreat and come back later.
"It might be magician construct." Another said. "Boss, I think we should leave the city. That magician may be bringing reinforcement right now."
She saw the previous guy emerged, as the other made a circle. "A magician of that caliber, in this city? I doubt it. An adventurer is far more likely." He said.
"But, even master Zeromus is currently here. What made it not possible, boss?"
"True... Let's pack up. We'll deliver those sacrifices to master Zeromus tonight, and we'll go west from there. We can grab the remaining sacrifices from the Asteria Village. Gil, mop up the floor."
Sacrifices? It was more than one? She had to plan. Reconstructing her body right then would end up with her being pushed back once again. Yet, she had to prevent the girl from being sacrificed. As time passed, her body was mopped and brought outside. She felt filthy, being treated like this. The kid, Gil, then squeezed her out as he wrung the mop. The water fell into the ground, some of them were outside of her control, as they sought the path of the least resistance.
Should she attack? The kid were vulnerable at this moment. She could bring the mass of water in her subspace, turn it into an ice spear, and killed him instantly. Her body was currently a mere droplet. The amount of water in her subspace were enough to reconstruct her body twice. From this angle, a surprise attack would certainly kill him.
Not yet.
As he entered and closed the door, she reconstructed her body. This time, she'll bring the city guards here.
---
She was in time to prevent the kidnapped child being sacrificed. It seemed that the group has fled, leaving a skeleton crew to deliver the kidnapped children to the magician. As for the magician himself, none of the guards were able to extract useful information from them, as the magician too had vanished from the city.
The child were held on the guard office, while one of the guard fetched her parent. It was the same with the other two children. After the child met her parent, Watery left to report it to the adventurer guild.
